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Thousands of musicians converge to play shows, network, talk about music and the industry, and discover new music at South by Southwest Music in Austin, Texas. In 2016 and 2017, KJZZ's Sarah Ventre followed bands from Arizona and kept an ear out for great new music from around the Southwest.

South By Southwest 2017 draws to a close

La Dame Blanche
Sarah Ventre/KJZZ
La Dame Blanche performs at South by Southwest in Austing\, Texas.

The South by Southwest festival is wrapping up this weekend in Austin.

Thousands of bands and tens of thousands of attendees descended for all three parts of the SXSW festival – music, film, and interactive.

Keynote speakers included musician Garth Brooks, director Lee Daniels and creator of the TV show "Transparent," Jill Soloway.

In previous years, people relied on ridesharing companies to get around, but this year is different. Last May, Uber and Lyft stopped servicing Austin after a voter-approved initiative required the businesses to fingerprint drivers. Instead, the companies pulled out.

This prompted some public backlash from festival attendees this year, but as they say, the show must go on — and it did.

Sarah Ventre was a producer for KJZZ's The Show from 2014 to 2018.